For 7 years, Rajesh and Sadhna Chaudhari have been awaiting permission for post-mortem of the body of their 5-year-old baby, to find the truth behind her death.
NEW DELHI: For seven years, Rajesh and Sadhna Chaudhari have been awaiting permission for post-mortem of the body of their five-year-old baby Sunaina, to find the truth behind her death. Sunaina, born to the London-based couple in March 2005 at King George Hospital, Essex, UK, died in the hospital in October 2000.
She was admitted to the hospital due to low oxygen level in her body. Sadhna had flown down to India for a post-mortem in March this year.
With child rights group Social Jurist, she filed a PIL on Thursday in the Delhi high court, seeking a probe into the death of Sunaina and a post-mortem of her body stored at Penzy Morgans Mortuary, Delhi, since Mar 2007.
The Delhi HC asked the Centre, Delhi government and the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to take immediate action in the case and inform the court of the action by September 3.
Sunaina was admitted to King George Hospital on October 1, 2000, with critical blood oxygen level of 51 per cent as opposed to a normal level of 99 to 100 per cent. After she died on Oct 26, her parents filed a murder case with London police, who also performed the first post-mortem on Sunaina’s body.
But the Chaudharis believe the post-mortem was a farce since many of the vital tests were not conducted. Their PIL states, “All the baby’s internal organs (including eyes and brain) were removed four days before the first post-mortem, but this was not investigated.”
Sadhna, a UK national, returned to India in March this year with Sunaina’s body after she received orders from the UK govt in February that the body would be destroyed if funeral arrangements were not made within 28 days.
Both Rajesh and Sadhna wrote to various departments of the Indian government and also to the prime minister’s office, demanding a probe.
Advocate Ashok Agarwal from Social Jurist said, “In April 2007, the joint secretary (consular), ministry of external affairs, wrote to the DGHS urging necessary action.
“The DGHS then requested the principal secretary (health), Delhi government, to get Sunaina’s post-mortem done at Maulana Azad Medical College.”
However, the department of health and family welfare of the Delhi government replied to the DGHS, “So far, we have not dealt with any such case. We are not able to decide the desirability of ordering post-mortem on bodies brought from abroad.” Since then, Sadhna has only been waiting.
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